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15 July, 2022

Grabban promotion captain departs

On this day in 2022 Forest confirm promotion-winning captain Lewis Grabban’s departure after his contract expires.

Player legacies

Individual milestone
Lewis Grabban, former Forest player.
Lewis Grabban, former Forest player. Image: Ben Sutherland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lewis Grabban’s departure closed the chapter on a striker who had helped guide Forest through one of the club’s most important modern seasons.

Forest confirmed that the promotion-winning captain would leave after his contract expired. It came only weeks after the Wembley play-off final victory over Huddersfield Town, when Steve Cooper’s side ended the club’s 23-year wait for top-flight football.

Lewis Grabban, former Forest player.
Lewis Grabban, former Forest player. Image: Ben Sutherland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Grabban’s importance went beyond the armband. He had scored consistently during difficult Championship years and remained a major figure during the 2021-22 promotion campaign, when his goals and leadership helped steady a squad transformed under Cooper.

His final season was disrupted by injury, and he did not get the clean farewell many long-serving players hope for. Even so, his place in the promotion story was secure. He had been part of the group that dragged Forest from the bottom of the Championship into the Premier League.

For supporters, the announcement carried a sense of respect as much as sadness. A new division was coming, but one of the men who helped make it possible was leaving.

Grabban's Milestones

Sources

Nottingham Forest official site.

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Player legacies
2022
Grabban promotion captain departs

Lewis Grabban’s departure closed the chapter on a striker who had helped guide Forest through one of the club’s most important modern seasons. Forest…

Player legacies